So you start the game and find yourself staring at a busted up escape pod. You will notice that your hot bar is on the left side of your display (HUD). In the lower left corner of your HUD is what really matters. The blue Oxygen bar. At the start of the game Oxygen is your limiting factor and every move you make has to take it into consideration. You will also see a white "Jetpack" bar. The Jetpack must be enabled by pressing "J" and when you press the spacebar it lifts you up, but not very much and runs out in a short time. You cannot sprint (Shift-W) with the Jetpack enabled. When you sprint the pink stamina bar decreases. Unlike some games you must stop moving completely for stamina to regenerate. You cannot sprint and then walk a bit to recharge it. Now press "M" to bring up a map. This will show you where you are, any deposits you have discovered and which way you are headed . Note that at this stage of development the polar regions are blocked off by force fields and cannot be entered.

Now, walk around the escape pod and familiarize yourself with it. You can Pause the game with the Pause/Break key or hit Escape. This game uses “T” as the USE key instead of the almost universal E. You can change it to E if it suits your style. Press the Escape key and left click on the options icons at top left, second from the left. Left click on controls and scroll down to Open / Use and change the”T” to an E.

Next, press "I" and take a look at your Inventory. It is empty but you should have a drill in hot bar slot #1 and a pistol in slot #2.

You can "take all" from a container by left clicking on the left arrow at the top of the container contents and everything is moved to your inventory. There is no way to put all your inventory but when in a container you can hold left shift and left click on items and move all of one item quickly.

Every system in the game gets power from a generator that uses a fuel tank that contains fuel cells that you put into it. You can find or construct fuel cells but don't get caught without any. Once there are fuel cells in the fuel tank, everything has to be turned on.

Our experience has been that confusion is minimized by using the ship terminology of port and starboard instead of left and right side. If you are in or on the pod the left side is port and the right side is starboard and never changes as you move relative to the vessel. We also used shipboard numbering. Starboard is odd numbers starting with 1 and increasing as you move aft and Port is even numbers increasing as you move aft. There are 9 components to the pod that you need to familiarize yourself with.

1.) The cockpit. You enter it from the port side by pressing the USE key. We will come back to this later.

on the port side:

2.) Just aft of the cockpit are two oxygen tanks. Oxygen is supplied in bottles. The bottles are placed in these tanks and then you refill your oxygen supply from the oxygen station. One bottle increases your Oxygen level approximately 1/2 way.

3.) Aft of the oxygen tanks is the Oxygen Station. You refill your oxygen supply by standing next to this station with Oxygen bottles in the Oxygen tank..

4.) Aft of the oxygen station are cargo boxes. This is the port side so the first one is Cargo Box #2. Press the use key and look inside of it. You will see 5 fuel cells, a work light, 5 oxygen bottles, an oxygen generator and a core. Transfer the fuel cells to your inventory.

5.) Next to Cargo Box #2 is Cargo Box #4. Look inside it and notice various usable items. Take the emergency rations, the small medikit and the antidote pills. Put the drill and the pistol in your hot bar into the cargo box. They will be of no use to you now and will only take up space better used for transporting loot.

Now go around to the starboard side.

6.) High up on the hull aft of the cockpit you will see orange lights. This is the Constructor. Press the USE key to look inside. On the right side of you screen you will see Templates, Construction Queue and Inventory. Next to Templates are four buttons for various menus. The first shows you blueprints for guns, tools and ammo. The next button brings up the menu for constructing basic building blocks. The next button converts raw material into usable items and constructs basic components. The next button is where you construct complex devices.

7.) Under the Constructor are blue lights that represent the fuel tank. Open the fuel tank and put two fuel cells into slots inside and watch the blue lights turn on.

8.) Aft of the fuels tank are two more cargo boxes. The forward one is Cargo Box #1. Inside of it are sprouts and growing equipment. Know that the stuff is in there but ignore it for now.

9.) Next is Cargo Box #3. Press the USE key to enter. It is full of raw material. Press the "Take All" arrow and take all of it.

Now walk around to the front port side, aim your crosshairs at the cockpit and press the USE key to enter. Press "Y" ("Master Power") and watch the console light up. You can do this because you put fuel cells into the fuel tank. Now press "P" to see the power control menu. Here you can power up or down individual components. For now, select the "Thruster Armored" and turn it off. If you walk around the back you would see it on. We were unsure how much, if any, power was being wasted there so thought it best to leave it off. Now press the USE key again to exit the cockpit. Power should be left on.

Walk around to the starboard side of the pod and you will see the orange lights of the Constructor are now on. Press the USE key to enter the Constructor. Left click on each raw material in your inventory to transfer it to the Constructor inventory. When you have enough material to construct an item, that item is no longer grayed out. The Constructor does not indicate how much of the required material you have so be sure to look in inventory so you don't waste material building stuff you don't need.

Now left click on the third tab from the left on the Constructor (Components) you will see fuel cells lit up. You should be down to 3. Click on it 7 times to build 14 fuel cells.
Remember you never want to run out of fuel cells or oxygen bottles.
You will see the fuel cells to be built in the Construction Queue and when finished they move into the Constructor inventory. We have been unable to determine if it is possible to remove an item from the Construction Queue once in it but it appears not. Move the fuel cells to your inventory and put 2 more into the fuel tank. Keep checking that you have fuel cells in the fuel tank. If things stop working that is probably the cause.

Now click on the components tab and locate and build the following. Be aware that the count of an item built by the constructor can vary. So the Output count of Metal Components is 2 if we want 5 then we build 3 and will have one left over.

Metal Components: 3
Electronics: 1
Metal Pieces: 2

Now go back to the Weapons tab, find the assault rifle icon and build one. Next find the 6.8 mm cartridge tab and build 4 lots, which is 100 rounds. Move the Assault Rifle to your hot bar and remember what number it is. Using #1 helps. When the cartridges have been constructed move them to your inventory. Select the Assault rifle and press "R" to load it. Be aware that in this game your weapon does not automatically reload. You must press "R" to reload every time. Hence, at any break in the action always take the opportunity to reload.

Now walk around to the port side and look in Cargo Box #2. Select the Oxygen generator and place it in your inventory. Next go to the cockpit, press the USE key, Y and the USE key again. This powers down the escape pod and conserves fuel cells.

You should still be on the port side of the escape pod. Check your Oxygen level, If it is close to or below 1/2 fill it up by taking a bottle from Cargo Box #1, placing it in the Oxygen tank and standing next to the Oxygen Station.

Turn 180 degrees and you should see a lake. Go ahead and sprint over there.

Resist the temptation to harvest any plants, mine any metal or molest any of the autochthonous life forms. None of them are a threat to you now and anything you take fills space better used for loot.

At the edge of the lake halt, enter inventory, move the Oxygen generator to the hot bar. Select the slot with the generator and place it down in in the water. Press the use key to open the generator and place a fuel cell into an Energy Items slot. When you come back there will be oxygen bottles in the "Output Items" slot. This is how you get more Oxygen.

Now look in the direction you were headed in to the lake from the escape pod. Select your assault rifle, right mouse to use the scope and scan the horizon. You should be able to locate a crashed ship; the MS Titan. We have inferred that this is the ship you escaped from but the game is silent on this point. Be that as it may, it has automatic defenses and no longer recognizes you. The ship will not sense you until you get past the lake. As you approach it will send mini-gun drones to kill you. This is a good thing as you will use your assault rifle to shoot down the drone and loot them for ammo and other swag.

There are 4 drones. When one is shot down another comes. Remember to keep reloading. If you are lucky you can get close to the ship and shoot them down before they take off and get even more loot from them. When you get to a disabled drone press the USE key and the Take all arrow and hit Escape to get out quickly with the loot. Note that the the Crouch/Down control "C" appears to not be working.

You should be able to shoot down and loot the 4 drones. Now explore the ship which has various cargo containers full of useful stuff. Grab it all.

Now I cannot emphasize this enough. When your blue Oxygen bar gets to or below 1/2, head back to the escape pod. On the way, stop by the Oxygen generator to pick up the new bottles and put another fuel cell in to make more.

Return to the escape pod and refill your Oxygen. You may be hungry by this time. Move the emergency rations to the hot bar and eat one when the green bar is very low. One ration will refill it completely.

Go in Cargo Box #2 and grab the core. Now enter the cockpit, turn power on and exit. Put a few more fuel cells into the fuel tank and transfer the core along with the material looted from the drones and ship into the Constructor.

Now you are going to build a ground vessel. The first step is to build a ground vessel starter block. Select the components tab, find and construct:

Metal Components: 4
Metal Plate: 2

With the loot from the drones and the Titan you should be able to construct a hover engine from the device tab. Do so now.

At the building blocks tab, construct 8 hull blocks. The Ground vessel starter icon will now illuminate. Build that next and ove it from the Constructor to your hot bar.

GOTO a flat spot between the escape pod and the lake. Make sure there is plenty of room around you and place the ground vessel starter block on the ground. This where you will build your ground vessel. Hop up on the block and press the power button P, it will show you what components you need to build. The block will have an arrow on it. The direction it is pointing to is forward/the front. If it gets dark, grab the portable work light from Cargo Box #2 and set it up to illuminate where you are building your vessel.

Go back to the Constructor. Build 4 batches of metal plates and build 18 hull blocks. Put 3 rows of three on each end fore and aft. Now you need to build (in no particular order) a cockpit, a fuel tank, a generator, a RCS and a normal thruster. Place the cockpit on the front end and the normal thruster on the aft end. Place the fuel tank and generator and you have the basics of your ground vessel.

We strongly recommend building an oxygen tank and an oxygen station and adding it to the vessel to extend your time away from the pod. We also recommend building 3 directional thrusters and placing one on each side and the front for ease of control. You might also want to build two cargo boxes and place them on your ground vessel to increase your carrying capacity.

Build a Remove & Repair Tool and Remove and Repair Charges. Place the tool in your hot bar and the Charges in your inventory. Select the tool and press R to load the charge.

Now return to the crashed MS Titan and loot any remaining cargo boxes at your leisure. On the way over there, stop and pick up new Oxygen bottles from the Oxygen Generator. Be sure to put a new fuel cell in.

The Remove & Repair tool can be used to recycle metal and glass from the ship. We think the whole ship is recyclable but have not yet attempted it. If Oxygen gets low you can conveniently refill it from your new ground vessel.

You should now have a good handle on how to construct things. Next up is mining. Grab the drill and charges from the Cargo Box they are in. Note well: do not mine at night - you will be attacked. You will probably be attacked at the Promethium deposit anyway so be ready for it. Fast drill with the right mouse. Be ready to kill and harvest any creature that attacks you.

With a full load of promethium, along with the loot from the ship, you are ready to build a base. Our experience has shown the best location is on the water at the edge of the lake by the oxygen generator.

Construct the Base starter block and add hull blocks. Build and place a small generator, a small fuel tank, a large constructor and a a food processor (to cook the meat you harvested from the creature that attacked you at the promethium deposit).

With the large Constructor you can build other bigger things like defense systems and a rocket launcher to use the rockets you salvaged from the Titan. At some point you will want to place the grow boxes and use the sprouts to grow food. Construct a water generator and place in the lake by the oxygen generator so you can make food in the food processor. We have not mastered agriculture in this game yet so at this point YOYO (You're on Your Own).

Now you can use your vessel to explore and harvest more ore deposits. There are other places with drones defending so be armed and ready. There are also large installations that will attack you with drones and rockets but are beyond the scope of this introductory guide.

Hope this helps you get started.